A longtime North
Carolina state employee has chosen to
retire instead
of lowering flags to honor former senator Jesse Helms,
saying in
an e-mail that the late conservative
had a ''doctrine of negativity, hate,
and
prejudice.''
U.S. and state
flags flew at half-staff on Monday and Tuesday following
an
order from Gov. Mike Easley. Helms died
Friday.
L.F. Eason III,
director of the North Carolina Standards Laboratory
-- a division of the state's Department of Agriculture
that
calibrates equipment for critical
measurements such as the weight of
medicines or
trucks on a highway -- told his staff to ignore the
directive.
He sent workers an e-mail saying he
didn't think it was appropriate.
''I don't see how
anybody could celebrate his career,'' the 51-year-old
said
in an interview, noting Helms's opposition to
the 1964 Civil Rights Act and
the filibuster to
stall the effort to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s
birthday
a national holiday. ''Everything he did was
such a disservice to this
state.''
Eason, who had
worked for 29 years at the Department of
Agriculture,
requested the option to retire Monday
after his superiors overruled his
decision and
ordered the flags be lowered. Eason wrote an e-mail to
the
governor and other supervisors saying he could
not in good conscience honor
Helms.
The governor's
orders were for state agencies to keep the flags
lowered
until Tuesday at sunset -- after Helms's
funeral and burial. The flags were
flying at
full-staff Wednesday.
A spokesman with
the agriculture department did not immediately return
a
phone call seeking comment Wednesday.
Ironically,
Eason's unyielding stance mirrored the man he refused to
honor.
Helms steadfastly stood by his positions
throughout his career, frustrating
fellow
lawmakers for an unwillingness to compromise.
Helms's political
career made him a lightning rod for controversy. He
entered
politics in helping elect segregationist
candidate Willis Smith to the
Senate in 1950
and continued a drumbeat of racial division until his
final
campaign in 1996.
The conservative
icon also clashed with gay activists by opposing
domestic
AIDS treatment.
''I can't say my
hardheadedness is the same as his,'' Eason said. ''Maybe
it
is the same level of conviction. I'd like to think
that it's more righteous
than Jesse's.'' (Mike
Baker, AP)
